Elaborated Recommendations
1. Encourage and utilize parents of students through involvement and, more importantly, engagement, to enhance the education of their family at home, in the school and at school related events. It is important to promote parent/teacher relations as a means to create a nourishing, respectful environment for students. Instead of insulating parents, utilize them to benefit the classroom (Weiner 2006). When parents feel safe coming to a school, they are more inclined to participate. This willingness to contribute leads to ample possibilities to richer curriculum exposure to students. One way to foster an engaging relationship between parents and teachers is to empower families and communities. To develop this strength, a solid basis of mutual listening must be implemented. Schools should “listen to the wisdom that parents have gained” in the several years of experience they have in raising their child/children (Ferlazzo 2011). Listening leads to communication that is not only helpful in creating curriculum, but also assists teachers and school personnel in managing a specific child’s behavior. In 1998, Ysleta Elementary School of El Paso, Texas consisted of a 95 percent poverty rate and largely Mexican immigrant population. Seven years earlier, under identical demographics, this school combated high discipline problems with increased parent involvement. With the help of a community group (not unlike those found in New York, such as The Harlem Children’s Zone), this school has developed into an arena where parents involve themselves in teaching their children/students extracurricular activities (such as art, music or ballet folklorico) or leading US citizen classes for other parents after school. Between the years of 1991, when the Texas Legislature passed a new law holding schools responsible for their student’s achievement in new standardized tests, and 1997, Ysleta scores increased from a 20% passing rate to a 95% passing rate. In this case, the level of parent engagement speaks not only to the possibilities that could be in New York City as well, but also to the overwhelming lack that currently exists (Basinger 1998). 2. Develop the notion of ‘parents as classroom resources’ for teachers in an effort to maintain awareness of varying ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Culturally diverse classrooms offer a wonderful opportunity for rich, multicultural education. Students need not explore websites and encyclopedias to find introductory information about an ethnicity, country, or culture when representation already exists in the classroom community. Unfortunately, teachers often avoid these differences for fear of offending or perhaps ignorance. This ignorance is steeped in a historical misconception that teachers should provide information and students should absorb it, as opposed to teachers and students mutually teaching and learning (Freire 1970). Students, especially in childhood education, are largely wrapped up in their parents’ cultural identities. Teachers can examine these identities by creating a partnership with parents. To do this, teachers must simply follow a few basic rules. First, teachers should be certain to validate families’ cultures. This means recognizing that different cultures respond different ways to their child’s’ education, but this does not imply they care any less. In a Los Angeles school, the principal found that the predominantly Latino population “does care. They just need an invitation” (Auerbach 2011). In addition, teachers should counter deficit thinking by opening a dialogue with parents about shared hopes for their children and plan curriculum accordingly. Secondly, teachers should become acutely aware of parent comfort levels. By keeping requests small and to the point, parents are less likely to stray from the school for fear of being overworked. Lastly, teachers should nurture parent voice. Especially when faced with immigrant populations, the New York City school district should recognize that varying beliefs on educational priorities will differ. Instead of manning an approach to ‘fix’ parents’ child-rearing practices in the classroom, schools should encourage parent voice and leadership development. In this way, the system can “help parents find their voice to be advocates for their children” (Auerbach 2011). In the end, teachers can then build off of student qualities brought into the classroom, instead of wasting precious time undoing the child’s cultural development, in an inadvertent effort to mold them into culturally vacant beings. 3. Establish accessible programs for parent-teacher and parent-school communication through group meetings, and one-on-one interactions in an effort to create a school-based community center. Although not the crux of parent-teacher interaction, school organized parent-teacher associations and events (such as Back to School Night) can act as a basis or introduction for parents and teachers. Questionnaires with the usual ‘child allergies’, ‘learning needs’ and so on will certainly aid the teacher throughout the year, however, attention must be paid to other opportunities to get parents involved. This may vary each year. To provide an example of how this might work, explore “Learning From Latino Families” by Susan Auerbach. She describes one schools effort in Los Angeles to utilize parents as a driving force in fulfilling the needs of low income, immigrant families. In this case, the principal examines her school not only as a place for teachers and students, but as a community center. She organizes programs at the school that can benefit parents as well as students, such as in-depth six to eight session classes in family literacy and math activities. The principal goes on to admit that this approach “does not take unusual amounts of charisma, time or funding; more important are caring, commitment and cultural competence on the part of school leaders and staff” (Auerbach 2011). This model, with proper teacher training, could translate to New York City schools to provide a equally successful response to the cultural separation thriving in many schools today. * * * * * * * * * * * * * To combat each of the aforementioned recommendations, the Chancellor should create a district-wide task force composed of concerned, already integrated parents, teachers and administrators to study the details of the successful models in Los Angeles and El Paso, along with other applicable research, to adjust the current model in New York City. This task force should include representatives from each school in the district, who, after careful collaborative planning, can then return to their home schools to form localized committees focused on addressing the needs of their individual communities in an engaging way. Topics addressed by the committee should include, but are not limited to: parent availability, parent accessibility and program developments that utilize parents to nourish the culture of the entire community.